The National Football League appears to be moving toward approving sports magnate Stan Kroenke as the next owner of the St. Louis Rams and allowing him a grace period to sell basketball's Denver Nuggets and hockey's Colorado Avalanche, sources say, despite the league’s prohibition against owners controlling teams in other NFL markets.

To whom Kroenke would sell the Denver teams is unclear, the sources said, and the NFL has not yet signed off on whether the clubs could transfer to his family members.

“Stan would be a great partner,” said New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft, a member of the league’s finance committee, as he departed the spring owners meeting. “I would like to see him in the room. We are trying to find a way for him to solve the problems.”

Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen, who arguably is most affected by the issue, said, “I have no issues with Stan.”

The cross-ownership ban is in place because the league does not want its owners competing against one another in their markets. The rule pertains to National Basketball Association, National Hockey League and Major League Baseball clubs.

Sources said Kroenke would not be selling Pepsi Center, home to the NBA Nuggets and NHL Avalanche; his regional sports network, Altitude Sports & Entertainment, which broadcasts many Nuggets and Avalanche games; or the Colorado Rapids of Major League Soccer, which Kroenke also owns.

Kroenke already owns 40 percent of the Rams and had a right of first refusal for majority control as part of that stake if the team ever came up for sale. The team’s owners reached an agreement with Shahid Khan in February, and Kroenke exercised his option two months later.

Kroenke earlier this month presented several ideas to the league, including having his wife, Ann Walton Kroenke, be the Rams buyer. The idea that seems to have found the most receptive audience is Kroenke owning the Rams while ceding control of the Denver teams.

Still unresolved is how long the NFL will give him after he buys the Rams to sell the Denver teams, and who the buyer would be: family or nonfamily. The NFL is expected to take up a proposal at a meeting in August.

A spokesman for Kroenke, Tomago Collins, cautioned in a voice message that nothing was determined.

Separately, Kroenke has been buying an increasingly larger share of Arsenal, the storied British soccer club and one of the world's most valuable sports franchises.

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